“Only once in my life have I laughed so much. It was not that forced smile with which we listen to friends’ jokes and in the wrinkles of laughter around our eyes we hide not amusement, but awkwardness and even shame; it was not even the laughter of a sanguine person - a long, rolling, free roar that is the envy of passers-by and neighbors in the carriage; it was a laugh that powerfully took over not only my face, but my whole body. He choked me for half an hour and beat me, as if in whooping cough, he turned me inside out, threw me on the grass, on the bed, twisted my arms and legs, contracting my muscles in such violent convulsions that those around me already began to fear for my life. Alien to pretense, sincere to the depths of the soul, it was that rare and happy laughter that leaves a bright mark on your entire life and in the deepest old age, when everything has already been experienced, buried, forgotten, causes a reflected smile...”